1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a fluid ejecting apparatus such as, for example, an ink jet type printer, and a maintenance method of the fluid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the past, there have been known ink jet type printers (hereinafter, referred to as “printer”) as a fluid ejecting apparatus which ejects fluid for a target. These printers perform printing (recording) on a paper as a target such that ink (fluid) supplied to a recording head (fluid ejecting head) is ejected from nozzles formed on the recording head.
Recently, in this printer, for example, such as the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-301991, a plurality of recording heads are disposed in a zigzag shape along the direction (i.e., a paper width direction) perpendicular to a transport direction of the paper. In addition, in such a printer, when the ink is not ejected for a long period of time, the ink in the nozzles is thickened, so that the ejection accuracy is degraded. Therefore, the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-301991 includes a plurality of maintenance devices which corresponds individually to each of the recording heads, and carries out the maintenance of each of the recording heads individually.
That is, in this printer, a plurality of maintenance devices individually moves up and down between a maintenance position and a retracted position on the basis of the driving of an elevating device. The corresponding recording heads are selectively maintained by the maintenance device which is moved up to the maintenance position.
Meanwhile, in the case of the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-301991, in order not to inhibit the printing on the paper, the maintenance devices are provided in positions, in which the transport path of the paper is interposed therebetween and the maintenance devices face the recording heads. Therefore, an elevating distance between the maintenance position and the retracted position in each of the maintenance devices becomes longer. In addition, there are drawbacks that an error occurs in an elevating stroke of each of the maintenance devices.
As a method of reducing the error in the elevating stroke, there may be considered a method in which all of the maintenance devices are integrally formed. However, in this case, the error in the elevating stroke is removed, but there is a need to configure each recording head to be selectively maintained. Therefore, there is a problem in that the configuration is complicated.
That is, in a case of cleaning as one of the maintenance actions, in order to clean selectively each recording head, a large number of valve gears are needed which are individually provided in correspondence with the maintenance devices. In addition, similarly, in a case of wiping as one of the maintenance actions, in order to wipe selectively each of the recording heads, there is a need to provide mechanisms which individually displace the respective wiper members provided on the respective maintenance devices between a wiping position and a non-wiping position.
In addition, in JP-A-2007-301991, when the recording head is cleaning, a nozzle forming surface of the recording head is covered by a cap (cap device) and the ink in the nozzle is absorbed by making the inside of the cap be in a negative pressure, so that the thickened ink is removed from the nozzle of the recording head. In addition, when the recording head is moisturized at the time of turning off the power supply, the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is continuously covered by the cap (cap device). Then, in the printer disclosed in JP-A-2007-301991, a single cap (cap device) serves when the recording head is cleaned and also serves when the recording head is moisturized. Therefore, in a state where the ink forcibly discharged from the recording head in cleaning remains in the internal space, when the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is covered using a cap at the time of turning off the power supply, a moisturizing component in the ink remaining in the cap absorbs water from the ink in the nozzle of the recording head, so that there is a drawback that the ink in the nozzle is thickened.
Regarding such a problem, for example, there may be considered a technique in which an absorbing cap for containing the ink forcibly discharged from the recording head in cleaning and a moisturizing cap for covering the nozzle forming surface of the recording head at the time of turning off the power supply are provided and used. That is, in this technique, it may be considered that the absorbing cap and the moisturizing cap are horizontally disposed in a main scanning direction which is the movement direction of a carriage mounted with the recording head, and a stop position of the carriage is adjusted in a home position in cleaning and in moisturizing.
Meanwhile, in this case of the technique, the elevating mechanisms are individually provided for two kinds of the caps for absorbing and moisturizing. In cleaning and moisturizing, the caps move up and down by the elevating mechanisms corresponding to the respective caps. Therefore, a larger number of the elevating mechanisms are necessary, so that there has been a problem that the configuration of the maintenance device is complicated.